38 thoughts on “Behringer 2-XM, A Euro Format Oberheim 2-Voice Copy, Now Shipping”

1. they had to respin bits of this a couple of times. hopefully it’ll be a screamer.

   1. i love this synth!

2. Id get 4 and polychain for the 8 voice but I would certainly wait for the implementation to work as expected so perhaps a kind soul on YouTube will get all this stuff to try it out.

   1. Why would you want to spend $1,600 on a kludgy, non-programmable polysynth?

      1. Because I like how it sounds? I mean, I dont buy a synth for its looks but for its sounds as it should be. As for programmable I feel perfectly fine making sounds from scratch like, not all synths need to be preset machines. Also 1600 at the rate they cut prices….

      2. Other than synths, pretty much every other musical instrument I can think of is non-programmable and have versions that will run you $1600 or more.

3. I plan to add a SEM-esque synth to my setup because I love their timbre. However, I don’t want to keep purchasing new synths; I want to buy them once and use them for the rest of my life. This doesn’t seem like something I can still work with 30 years from now. To be fair, neither do the contemporary instruments from most other brands. NRSynth Solo might make the most sense for my admittedly niche use case.

   1. i have a hard time believing *any* product you want to rock that is built with plastic shaft 9mm rotary pots will last 30 years. they just don’t stand up to lateral forces over time. i’ve replaced scad’s of them after a couple of years of twiddling in many products.

      i had this on pre-order, also cancelled. not paying any unecessary tariff’s.

      1. Behringer’s products are designed to be disposable, and priced so that it doesn’t make sense to repair them.

         It’s not going to make sense to pay somebody to repair a module that’s worth a couple of hundred bucks used. Technicians typically have a $80-100 bench fee, just to take a look at something that needs to be repaired. And most musicians don’t have the knowledge to troubleshoot and repair an SMT PCB.

         Behringer is just using standard consumer electronics build practices, and prioritizing cheap build cost over long-term reliability. This is not unique to Behringer, but is becoming standard practice for mainstream music gear manufacturing. Behringer is just pushing the envelope a little faster than other companies.

         1. no, they design it for minimal cost. all engineers do, that’s part of the job. they just have a low cost goal to serve all the global markets they target. they’re not here to save western music, they’re here to serve everyone which means you cut corners. you might throw it put, but they won’t.

         2. Translation:
            landfill synth, non-repairable, soon to be disposed.

      2. All these shaft knobs (which have their uses for dialing in set and forget settings) make me think the reason behind it is to make the pots last longer due to how gentle you have to be using these knobs to set precise settings (if that’s even possible).

         1. they’re used because you can pack them much closer than a pot with a resonable sized knob on it.

            fun fact: the wiper and resistive element diameter is virtually no larger than the diameter of that plastic shaft! and no, you can’t get very precise or repeatable settings with them at all.

            1. So, these aren’t micro / shaft knobs put on regular pots, like I see on pedals?

               1. for this, they use Soundwell 9mm rotary trim pots. mechanically, in 9mm, there’s very little difference between a plastic trim pot, and a d-shaft (they’re all about 6mm in diameter) and a trim pot shaft. they’re just molded differently.

   2. New electronics are not made to last 30 years but tbf it is still early to know and so far Id say 90% of the stuff I have bought the last 20 years still work *knock on wood*.

      Not even the best synths of yesteryears (that were built to last) can survive the passage of time and will inevitably need repairs, tuning etc. and if something dies good luck getting a replacement part. What I did was that I took a course on electronics repairs to service my own stuff and it already paid off fixing other stuff and even some circuit bending without frying out the synth.

      If you can understand circuit paths/schematics and can work your way around a soldering iron and a multimeter, you can bring the fight to father time.

      1. The main argument for the NRSynth Solo, besides the sound and build quality, is its repairability. Since it’s hand-built with standard though-hole components, a trained technician should be able to keep it running at a reasonable expense for a long time, just like many of the analog synths from the 60s and 70s that are still going strong with some basic care. With all its digital components, SMB parts, and miniaturization, it will be much harder to maintain current-day gear and mostly not worth the cost and effort, as you said. There’s nothing wrong with that, but since I know I will be using my instruments for the rest of my life, I’d rather buy once than over and over.

   3. Buy an OB-6.

      1. I currently have a loaned OB-6 and OB-X8 in the studio, and while they are both excellent synths, I don’t feel they quite sound like the SEM. It’s a different beast somehow, especially when it comes to bass.

         1. I tested the OB-6 again today and I feel it does „the SEM bass“ I am hunting quite well indeed. Even more so than the X8, as far as I can tell.

            1. You’re right, it isn’t the same. It’s brighter than the Oberheim Two Voice. But it was developed/approved by Tom and it is a SEM filter.

               Between the OB-6 and OB-E software, I feel I have SEM covered exceptionally well with my two favorites.

            2. i like your voice, its like asmr

4. mini pots ugh

5. Looks like Behringer is pricing this 25% higher in the US to account for the Trump tax.

   Is that how you interpret the pricing?

   1. Of course, and they should, this will be the consequences for electing that orange monkey, hope for a revolution (or another bullet) for the M’ericans…

      1. the apostrophe goes before the M in ‘Merica. didn’t they teach you that in Sunday School Gun Practice and Toxic Masculinity Camp? what has our educational system come to!? what educational system!

         i also cancelled this pre-order.

   2. Someone over at Behringer Facebook page said the same thing about the Trump tax and Behringer themselves answered: “No Trump tax if you buy from Thomann” lol

   3. After seing today’s tariffs announcement (which is on top of existing tariffs) I suspect the RRP for this is going to be closer to $449.

   4. The price has increased to account for Trump’s tariffs. I don’t think it is reasonable to give the impression that the manufacturer is responsible. Tariffs are likely to raise the price of all synths in the US. Behringer, Korg, Roland, Arturia, Nord, Yamaha, Novation & Waldorf are popular brands which are not US manufacturers and will be affected by tariffs to some extent. However, Moog, Sequential, Oberheim & Kurzweil are not immune. Moog now manufactures most of its products in Taiwan. The others use components sourced globally, for example they all use Italian made keybeds from Fatar. Although it is uncertain as to the actual scale of impact on product prices it is objectively true that tariffs will have an effect and that is likely to translate to higher prices across the board.

   5. as we say, pissing your own pants is only warm for short time

6. I can’t make the image large enough does it have 2v/oct? That would push me into wanting it.

7. That was disappointing. Judging from the demo they sure didn’t nail the Oberheim sound.

   It seems like the SEM (perhaps Oberheim synths in general) is somehow the hardest of the classic synths to recreate; the vst attempts didn’t really succeed either although a couple of them did pretty good

   1. I feel Gforce did an exceptionally good job with their Oberheim plugin lineup.

8. Been waiting year for this, but was hoping for a 299 price (pre tarrif), might as well just spend more and get the OB-6 used. It still isn’t a bad price, I am just saying.

9. I’d be dismissive of this one if I hadn’t seen several players speak well of their System 55 Moog-alikes. A real SEM or two would feel better to me, especially those equipped with patch bays. Modulars live or die by how hardy their jacks are. Either way, we’ll probably hear from early adopters. The Oberheim aroma will draw them in.

   BTW, plug-ins sound only as good as your monitors/amps will allow. I’ve had the chance to play a few legends. Plugs like Synapse Audio’s OBSESSION or Cherry Audio’s GX-80 really do deliver. Don’t deny yourself the 95% you get over the 5% you lose.

10. Don’t hardware synths also sound as good as amps/monitors allow?

    1. 

11. I’ve been using the GFORCE Oberheim OB-E (8x SEM) VST and it’s very fun and unique to get different sounds on each voice/synth. I like the idea of having 4x 2-XM for 8 voices, but I feel like it would be too much maintenance and setup to get it to behave like the VST (sequentially allocating voices across the 8x voices). And of course, no patch memory or copy/paste so keep that in mind too.